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Katherine dragged her suitcase into the cozy mansion estate with tired, aching arms. Dragging may not be the right word. More so, she carried the large inconvenience over the wooden floorboards, horrified at even the thought she might scratch them the slightest bit. They were much nicer than the floorboards at her hotel, constantly weakened and stained with leaks, blood, and who knows what else. It had been so long that she nearly forgot what a non-haunted hotel actually looked like. They were cleaner. Neater. So much more terrifying to ruin.
To her right was her son, Ben. Thirteen years old and extremely begrudging to be forced away from his home-ridden ghost of a girlfriend that Katherine never truly approved of. He grumbled something incomprehensible as he lugged his own suitcase to the front desk.
To Katherine’s left, a kid who was anything but a kid. A feral being of vicious horror, stuffed into the flesh of an eternal ten year old body. Abaddon, her demon… nephew? She still wasn’t sure what he in fact was to her. Or what he was to Nathan yet. She had assumed the role as aunt because it was what was easiest. A child under the guardianship of her following her brother’s death? That’s close enough to an aunt for her to avoid many questions whilst still being honest.
Rushing down the stairs, she saw a woman with bouncing golden curls. Younger than she expected. Maybe in her late twenties or so. It was impressive seeing such a younger proprietor successfully running such a better off hotel. Impressive if not extremely depressing when comparing it to her own lack of successes. She smiled at the bubbly woman as she approached the other side of the desk.
“Hi! I’m so sorry I kept you waiting.” She seemed frazzled as she shook Katherine’s hand. Understandably. Katherine didn’t judge it.
“Oh, don’t worry.” She reassured the host with a gentle smile. Almost as if her thoughts escaped through her lips on her own, she found herself adding “I run a hotel too, I know how it is.” Did she? Did she really know? Because it seemed like this woman was frazzled with the many normal responsibilities of a successful business, not the struggles of daily paranormal horror shows. Katherine caught when Ben gave her a doubtful glance, and she didn’t bother to respond to it. Yeah, she definitely just said that to feel equal to these obvious superiors.
“Oh, do you?” The woman replied, looking pleasantly surprised. “Well that’s neat. I hope we don’t disappoint, then. I’m Sam, the owner. And you are…”
“Katherine Freeling. We rented two rooms?”
“That’s right.” Sam said, fishing around her side of the desk to find the keys. “Maple and Pine suites?”
Katherine nodded and opened her purse to fish out a credit card. As she did this, two small hands reached up to the top of the desk, as Abaddon stood on his toes to look at Sam.
“I wanted a bear room. Kathrine said you didn’t have one.” He said, tone flat and surprising enough to cause Sam to startle.
“Abaddon.” Kathrine scolded with a side eye.
Sam leaned over the counter to better see the boy. “Goodness, I didn’t even see you there, kiddo! Yeah, we don’t have a bear suite. We were playing around with the idea of a bear theme, after all we are in bear area, but someone did unfortunately pass away on this property from a bear attack so we felt it’d be insensitive.”
“Oh, how horrible.” Kathrine spoke as she handed her card to Sam. It surprised her just how monotone she reacted to that. had she really become this desensitized to death?
“Did you keep the bones?” Abaddon questioned.
Sam made a face at that. “Um-“ She suddenly paused, flinching as if she had heard a loud sound from right beside her.
“Abaddon, do you remember what we talked about in the car?” Katherine asked, taking Sam’s silence as a reaction of discomfort. The tired mother’s teeth gritted as she looked into his eyes. “You said you’d try to be normal?” She murmured.
“I am being normal. I’m asking questions. Questions are normal.” Abaddon frowned at her, before looking back to Sam, or at least the empty air right beside Sam. “Besides, she kept *his* bones!”
“What?” Sam suddenly said surprised.
“Abaddon, what are you talking about?” Katherine asked.
“The viking. He just laughed about how she kept his bones.”
Ben looked up from his phone. “Oh, wow, yeah, there is a viking.” He said casually, as if observing nothing more surprising than the weather.
“What Viking?” Katherine asked, glancing around confusion increasing.
“You can’t see the ghost?” Ben asked.
Sam’s surprise was evident, but she seemed rendered silent as she watched the family so casually react to Thor, the Viking ghost who in fact *was* right beside her. He was louder than her, but they seemed to tune him out much easier than she tuned the ghosts out.
“No, I can’t.” Katherine said.
“Huh. That’s unusual.” Ben said.
Katherine nodded and motioned again to hand the card to Sam, who had to break from her stun to take it. “If only that were the case for all ghosts.” She said, letting out a chuckle.
Sam blinked. “I’m sorry, you- you guys know about ghosts?”
Ben laughed at that. “Know about ghosts? I’m dating a ghost. Speaking of which, Mom, is it too late to cancel this whole thing? Because if there are ghosts here too, we might as well go back. Annabelle needs me for like, everything.”
“We’re not going back, Ben.” Katherine looked back to Sam who stared at her still in surprise, mouth open. “What?” She asked.
Sam shook her head. “I’m sorry. I’m just a little bit in shock.” She admitted. “I’ve only ever met one other person that saw ghosts- even *knew* about ghosts. I guess seeing someone so casual about it is just.. a little disorienting!” She let out a small laugh, and handed the keys over to Katherine.
“What, it’s not normal to see them here?” Ben questioned.
Sam shook her head. “No. Not without a near death experience.” She turned to her side. “Thor, would you mind letting the others know they can be seen this time? I don’t want them to freak out, and I don’t want Trevor revealing anything.” A beat of silence in Katherine’s perspective, then Sam nodded and looked back to the group.
“Who’s Trevor?” Katherine asked.
“He died without pants.” Sam explained.
“Oh, what an embarrassing afterlife that must be.” Katherine muttered.
“He owns it.” Sam replied.
In that moment, the door opened and in walked Katherine’s daughter, Esther who had a duffel bag slung over her shoulder. “Sorry guys,” she said walking up. “I got side tracked talking to this Boy Scout ghost. Did you know this place is haunted too?”
“Not until just now.” Katherine said.
Sam hesitated, then spoke again. “I have to ask. You said your hotel is also haunted? How did you find out? If you couldn’t see them..”
“Oh, no, I can see them at my hotel. Just not here… for whatever reason.” Katherine clarified.
“It’s the veil.” Abaddon spoke, causing Sam to jump again. No wonder, Abaddon naturally had that effect on people, even when they knew he was there. “The undervale’s a gateway to hell. this place.. it feels more like a window. The veil between the living and otherwise is stronger.”
“I *thought* I picked up on some kind of change.” Esther grinned, hands going to her hips.
*Sam stammered, questions racing into her mind faster than she could ask them. Eventually she asked “Wait, how do you know that?”
To that Abaddon responded “I’m a demon. I notice these kinds of things.”